Podcast Summary: The Intersection of Data & Media with Canadian Tire’s Simone Lumsden
Podcast Information:
- Title: The CPG Guys
- Hosts: Peter V.S. Bond & Sri Rajagopalan
- Episode Title: The Intersection of Data & Media with Canadian Tire’s Simone Lumsden
- Release Date: March 19, 2025
Introduction to Retail Media and Executive Education Program
The episode opens with Peter V.S. Bond discussing the burgeoning role of retail media in today’s omnichannel marketing landscape. He highlights the importance of accurately targeting audiences using longitudinal purchasing behaviors and executing media impressions across various channels. Peter introduces a new collaboration between Cornell University and The CPG Guys to launch the first-ever Retail Media Strategy Executive Education program at Cornell Tech, scheduled for May 5–8, 2025. This program aims to equip industry leaders with best practices in building retail media platforms, leveraging AI-driven campaign design, and establishing robust brand-retailer partnerships.
Key Quote:
"By the end of the Retail Media Strategy program, you'll have gained a deep understanding of the retail media ecosystem and how both brands and retailers can accelerate organizational transformation to thrive in the future of performance marketing."
— Peter V.S. Bond [00:00]
Celebrating Women’s Month and Introducing the Guest
As the hosts segue into the episode, they celebrate Women’s Month, emphasizing the inclusion of female leaders from across North America and Canada. They introduce Simone Lumsden, Senior Vice President of Triangle Loyalty and Triangle Retail Media at Canadian Tire, as their special guest. Simone brings extensive experience in leveraging data and analytics to enhance customer experiences, transitioning from the telecommunications sector to retail.
Key Quote:
"We're celebrating the amazing women leaders who are making significant impacts in both corporate America and Canada."
— Sree Rajagopalan [03:53]
Simone Lumsden’s Career Journey and Expertise
Simone elaborates on her career trajectory, focusing on her expertise in utilizing data and analytics to drive customer experiences. She recounts her time in telecommunications, where she developed predictive models to combat customer churn. Simone explains her transition to retail, where the richness of first-party data from loyalty programs enables a broader and more contextual understanding of consumer behavior.
Key Quote:
"Understanding how you can leverage data, harnessing that and getting great data integrity and really deep understanding of your customer is what I did for my entire career."
— Simone Lumsden [09:40]
State of Data-Driven Marketing in Canada vs. the US
Simone discusses the maturity of retail media in Canada compared to the United States. She notes that while the US market has advanced with direct collaborations between major CPG brands and retail media players, Canada’s retail media landscape is still developing. Canadian Tire is pioneering in this space by working closely with vendor partners and agencies to introduce and educate brands on the value of retail media.
Key Quote:
"In Canada, that's not really the case. You don't have these big CPG players seeking out retail media just yet."
— Simone Lumsden [13:33]
Triangle Retail Media: Data and Reach
Simone provides an in-depth look at Canadian Tire’s Triangle Loyalty program, which boasts 11.4 million active customers—representing two-thirds of Canadian households. The program generates over a billion data signals annually from customer interactions across various channels, including online platforms and in-store activities. This vast data repository fuels Triangle Retail Media, enabling precise targeting and personalized marketing campaigns.
Key Quote:
"We have 11.4 million active customers in our loyalty program. So we're getting over a billion data signals every single year from these customers."
— Simone Lumsden [16:30]
On-Site and Off-Site Retail Media Solutions
Simone outlines the suite of retail media products offered by Canadian Tire, including on-site sponsored product ads, banner ads, email inserts, and targeted offers. She also discusses off-site media strategies involving partnerships with major platforms like Meta, Google, and TikTok. These integrated approaches allow brands to reach consumers both within and outside Canadian Tire’s digital ecosystem.
Key Quote:
"Their campaigns are spreading across both [on-site and off-site]."
— Simone Lumsden [18:35]
Measurement Metrics: ROAS and Incremental ROAS (IROAS)
A significant portion of the discussion centers on measurement metrics essential for evaluating the effectiveness of retail media campaigns. Simone explains how Canadian Tire utilizes both Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) and Incremental ROAS (IROAS) by creating synthetic control groups to measure the additional impact of their campaigns. These metrics help brands understand the true value and incremental benefits of their marketing efforts.
Key Quote:
"We create a synthetic control of like brands and then we measure the performance against that synthetic control which gives us our incremental ROAS or IROAS."
— Simone Lumsden [27:06]
Future Trends: Clean Rooms and AI Integration
Looking ahead, Simone highlights emerging trends in the retail media industry, particularly the implementation of clean rooms for data privacy-compliant partnerships and the integration of generative AI to automate and enhance marketing processes. She emphasizes the importance of clean rooms in combining data sets securely and the transformative potential of AI in automating manual tasks and improving model performance.
Key Quote:
"We need to really tackle that one. And even that is way harder than me just saying it, right?"
— Simone Lumsden [37:05]
In-Store Media and Community Engagement
Simone touches on Canadian Tire’s unique approach to in-store media, leveraging their 1,600 locations to deliver personalized and community-focused marketing. Each store is tailored to its local community, which allows for bespoke product offerings and targeted in-store and outdoor media. This strategy not only enhances the shopping experience but also strengthens community ties.
Key Quote:
"Our stores actually don't carry the same product in every single store. We're bespoke store by store, owned and operated by the dealers."
— Simone Lumsden [23:14]
Conclusion and Closing Remarks
The hosts conclude the episode by expressing their appreciation for Simone’s insightful contributions. They reflect on the competitive advantages Canadian Tire holds in the Canadian market, particularly with its robust loyalty program and data-driven retail media strategies. The discussion underscores the critical role of data integrity, advanced analytics, and innovative marketing solutions in driving the future of retail media.
Key Quote:
"What kind of profiles of customers that might be interested in their product and the other attributes that those kinds of customers have. That's what is so fascinating."
— Simone Lumsden [30:09]
Final Thoughts
This episode of The CPG Guys provides a comprehensive exploration of how Canadian Tire leverages its extensive loyalty program and data analytics to power its retail media initiatives. Simone Lumsden offers invaluable insights into the current state and future trends of retail media in Canada, emphasizing the importance of measurement, AI integration, and community-centric strategies. For brands looking to enhance their marketing strategies through data-driven approaches, Simone’s expertise and Canadian Tire’s innovative solutions present a compelling case study.
Notable Quotes Recap:
- "By the end of the Retail Media Strategy program, you'll have gained a deep understanding of the retail media ecosystem..." — Peter V.S. Bond [00:00]
- "Understanding how you can leverage data, harnessing that and getting great data integrity..." — Simone Lumsden [09:40]
- "We have 11.4 million active customers in our loyalty program..." — Simone Lumsden [16:30]
- "We create a synthetic control of like brands and then we measure the performance..." — Simone Lumsden [27:06]
- "We need to really tackle that one. And even that is way harder than me just saying it, right?" — Simone Lumsden [37:05]
- "Our stores actually don't carry the same product in every single store..." — Simone Lumsden [23:14]
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